Very nice photos but they're pretty old. Not only is Vesey St. not yet cleared and open for the public, but the overpass is still present. That looks more like last fall than this fall...

Obviously Sherlock. It was a comment on the large photo itself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

I don't care if it wouldn't be as functional, they were some of the coolest and most iconic towers of all time.

Yeah, because you've got no money to lose or gain trying to lease that space. Silverstein had to move forward with planning that could get the office space leased. And as we can see, even now its taking time to do that. Simply putting that much money into those towers to serve as "monuments" rather than functional buildings would be beyond insane, irresponsible planning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by weidncol

The officials at the PANYNJ are kicking their asses at this very moment for not rebuilding what was there before. They've said so many times that they made the biggest mistake by selecting this master plan. Simple reason: billions of $ worth of cost overruns and delays. It's just a huge headache for them.

The PA has said no such thing regarding the office space. In fact, the site plan that was chosen was pretty much what the Port Authority wanted all along. It was just dressed up in pretty pictures. No sensible person advocated building exactly what was there before, because smarter people know better. If there were any regrets, there were regrets with the planning of the original complex in the first place, which took decades to fill.

Port Authority to Explore Selling Its Real Estate
Sales at Center of Plan to Overhaul Agency

By ELIOT BROWN and ANDREW TANGEL
Dec. 28, 2014

Quote:

Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie have turned to a familiar idea in their pledge to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: selling its real estate.

A report released over the weekend highlights a plan to sell off many of the agency’s sprawling property holdings, by far the most notable of which is the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.

That concept has long been pushed within the agency, and it has been implemented gradually over the past decade and a half.

Now, real estate sales are at the center of a plan to overhaul the Port Authority in the wake of the George Washington Bridge scandal by reorienting the agency to its core mission of transportation projects.

John Degnan, Port Authority chairman, said it wasn’t clear how the authority would carry out the plan. The agency could pursue outright sales, lease the properties or partner with private companies. The chairman noted that bond covenants could complicate any sales of its assets.

He said it could take years to figure out how to sell the authority’s roughly 90% stake in One World Trade Center. The Durst Organization owns the remainder.

“We’ve spent billions of dollars to build the World Trade Center—I’m not getting rid of it on a fire sale,” Mr. Degnan said. “I believe in the end it is going to be a profitable venture and will result in the Port Authority financially benefiting from its sale.”

While the Port Authority long debated privatizing the Twin Towers after they were built in the early 1970s, the agency ultimately signed a 99-year lease to transfer the site to developer Larry Silverstein in mid-2001, just six weeks before the terrorist attacks destroyed the buildings on the site.

After, the agency reinserted itself by putting billions of dollars into site infrastructure and taking over development and ownership of One World Trade Center. Mr. Silverstein kept a 99-year lease on the sites for three other towers; the Port Authority continues to own the land under the towers.

Just how much One World Trade Center is worth will depend on how well the tower attracts new tenants in the coming years. It has leases for 61% of its space. The agency and Durst have projected it would have an operating income of $144 million by 2019, when it is projected to be 95% full. Depending on the strength of the sales market, that means the building would likely be worth at least $3 billion and perhaps substantially more.

In addition, the Port Authority could theoretically sell the land under Mr. Silverstein’s towers, trading a lump cash sum from an investor for the tens of millions of dollars in annual rent the towers pay to the Port Authority.

The agency also owns a site for a fifth tower across the street from 4 World Trade Center that it has long planned to sell. It sold the complex’s retail in two deals to Westfield valued at $1.4 billion.

__________________NEW YORK. World's capital.

“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.

Now that One World Trade Center is finally completed and opened, the Port Authority reportedly wants out, according to the Wall Street Journal. A report released over the weekend details a plan from Governors Cuomo and Christie to revamp the agency in the wake of Christie's Bridgegate scandal by selling off its valuable real estate holdings and refocusing on transportation. (Hopefully, all the extra money the Port Authority would have would somehow prevent Christie from vindictively closing any other bridges? Just bear with him.) The most valuable among the real estate holdings is, of course, One WTC, in which the agency controls a 90 percent stake (the Durst Organization has the other 10 percent).

If the Port Authority does decide to sell the Freedom Tower, it has a number of options. It could pursue an outright sale, lease the property, or partner with a private company. Port Authority chairman John Degnan, for his part, says that figuring out how to sell the tower could take years, elaborating, "We've spent billions of dollars to build the World Trade Center—I'm not getting rid of it on a fire sale. I believe in the end it is going to be a profitable venture and will result in the Port Authority financially benefiting from its sale."

What's with all the latter-day Tal Barzilai's wishing for the return of the twins? What is there now is (much) better.

__________________The opposite of political correctness is not unvarnished truth-telling. It is political expression that is careless toward the beliefs and attitudes different than one’s own. In its more extreme fashion, it is incivility, indecency or vulgarity. These are the true alternatives to political correctness. l

^awesome. Time to start planning a NYC trip. I last visited in 1994, aside from transfers.

__________________The opposite of political correctness is not unvarnished truth-telling. It is political expression that is careless toward the beliefs and attitudes different than one’s own. In its more extreme fashion, it is incivility, indecency or vulgarity. These are the true alternatives to political correctness. l